That’s according to journalist Duncan Castles, who says Woodward is blocking up the wage bill and space at the training ground by doing so.

United’s executive vice-chairman has made some bizarre decisions in the last 12 months.

He first awarded Marcos Rojo a new deal at Old Trafford in March 2018, before agreeing an extension with Chris Smalling the following December.

And Woodward left many scratching their heads when Phil Jones put pen to paper on a new contract in February.

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“You still have the fundamental problem that Woodward keeps handing new contracts to players who are not of sufficient quality for Manchester United”

Duncan Castles

All three defenders have failed to impress for United in recent years, and Castles thinks having an overly large squad simply ‘creates issues’.

“You still have the fundamental problem that Woodward keeps handing new contracts to players who are not of sufficient quality for Manchester United, so he blocks up the wage bill and blocks up space at the training ground,” he told The Transfer Window podcast.

“Most managers will tell you they don’t want overly large squads because it becomes difficult to handle on the training pitch and around the training ground, guys that are not getting playing time etcetera, it just creates issues.

“And I think the fundamental thing here is that, as we’ve said on many occasions, one of the things that [Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer has in his favour, in terms of getting the job, is he’s perceived as being a more passive figure in the transfer market.”

Castles’ comments came after it was claimed that:

Phil Jones was one of three questionable players to earn new contracts at Manchester United (Pic: GETTY)

He continued: “[Solskjaer] desperately wants the job, he was the outsider when he was appointed, he now becomes the fans’ favourite.

“But he will clearly not produce the kind of demands on the club that [Jose] Mourinho did, or as you would expect a coach of Mourinho’s standard or status if he was to be hired in Solskjaer’s place to make upon the club.

“So I don’t think the solution is gonna be Solskjaer saying: ‘Ed, I’m not happy with what the scouting team’s proposing. I want to go for this player instead.’ And Solskjaer pushing and pushing and pushing until he gets the right player in.

“And one other further point in this is, his own record in the transfer market as a manager is really poor. If you look at what he did when he came in at Cardiff, the money that was spent, significant sums for Cardiff City to try and keep them in the Premier League on Norwegian players with direct links to his own agent who played very few games for the club. It’s not impressive.

Solskjaer’s poor transfer record at Cardiff is a concern for United, according to Castles (Pic: GETTY)

“So in summary, I would say I don’t see this problem going away. I think it’s structural, it’s fundamental at Manchester United.

“If they get the right director of football, they can’t start working on it. But it’s mid-March already. We’re already two months beyond when well-organised clubs have got their recruitment team and their recruitment strategy in place for the next season.

“And United are talking about, albeit they’re looking at players, albeit they’re having discussions with Solskjaer about who he thinks should come in, they’re talking about bringing in a director of football during that period, which is, for well-organised clubs, the most important part of their recruitment window.”